by Callie Rose
Putting all of that away to think about later, I pressed the button on the side of my phone and checked the time. It was almost eleven a.m.
Cole had told me he’d pick me up when he and Penny were on their way to mini-golf, and even though I had a perfectly good car in the lot, I’d accepted.
I didn’t like it though.
His parents probably only had a vague idea who I was, a memory of me as a little girl in a sundress—but if his dad wanted Cole off-campus for the weekends, I didn’t think he’d take too kindly to hearing that his son had driven all the way out to Oak Park to pick me up.
Finn and I got in a bit of studying while I waited for Cole and Penny to arrive, and when he texted me to let me know he was in the lot, the blond quarterback insisted on walking me across campus. Cole met us halfway, making me feel even more like a human relay baton.
He had Penny in tow, and the sight of the two of them together made my footsteps stutter. She was a petite girl of eight—or nine by now, probably—all thin limbs and bony elbows. Her hand rested inside Cole’s much larger one, and with her at his side, the raven-haired boy looked even bigger and broader than usual.
I wondered what it must be like for her to have someone like Cole for an older brother—to know that the hulking slab of muscle would do anything to protect her.
Then I wondered what it was like for her to have to watch their father beat Cole, and my stomach turned over like a corpse in a grave.
I shook the terrible thought away as they approached, and Finn gave my hand a squeeze before he released it. Our fingers had twined around each other without me even realizing it, something that seemed to happen more and more these days. As if our bodies knew something we didn’t—or wouldn’t admit—and were constantly trying to reconnect, to get closer.
Introductions were made, and the boys exchanged a quick greeting while Penny stared up at me with big eyes, then Cole took my hand in his free one and the three of us started across the lawn toward the student lot. He kept his pace deliberately slow to match mine, and when Penny started to get ahead of us, he cleared his throat and jerked his chin slightly toward me.
She adjusted her pace, shooting me another wide-eyed look, and I smiled weakly.
God, why am I so fucking nervous?
I’d never officially met his parents since I’d arrived at Oak Park, but I found myself way more worried about what Penny thought of me than I would be about Mr. or Mrs. Mercer’s opinions.
Cole’s gaze cut to me, and I thought maybe he was hiding a smirk. Like he knew exactly what I was thinking and thought it was cute or something. I narrowed my eyes at him, and the smirk finally broke through, tilting his lips as we reached the parking lot.
His car was a sleek Aston Martin, and as he reached for the passenger door handle, I saw his gaze flicker between me and his sister.
“Hey, Penny, why don’t you sit up front?” I offered, moving toward the other door and saving Cole from having to decide between us.
I could feel him watching me as his sister climbed into the front seat and I slid into the back. When he got behind the wheel, he adjusted the rearview mirror to see my face, and there was something warm in his bright blue eyes.
The mini-golf place was on the outskirts of Roseland, about a twenty-minute drive from the school. The entire way there, Penny kept up a constant stream of chatter, with Cole throwing in a few words here and there in his deep, gruff voice. I didn’t say much, partly because I thought Penny had sort of forgotten I was in the car and I didn’t want to scare her—she’d been mum all the way across campus, too busy staring at me to say anything at all.
The other part of why I didn’t talk was because I was caught up in observing the interactions between Cole and his sister.
She had lighter hair than him, but I could see other similarities in their features. And although their personalities seemed as different as night and day, I couldn’t help thinking the universe had created them as the perfect complements to each other.
Cole needed someone around who would fill the silences he couldn’t. And given what I knew of their home life, Penny probably needed someone who would listen when she talked.
She got quiet again when we reached the mini-golf place, even though I could tell from the look in her eyes and the way her body practically vibrated that she was excited. She struck me as a sweet combination of bubbly and shy—closed up like a clam around new people, but a ray of sunshine around the ones she loved and trusted.
While Cole paid for our club rental, I walked over to where Penny was considering the baskets of colored balls and glanced down at her.
“What do you think? Did you pick your color yet?”
Her long eyelashes fluttered as she blinked up at me. “No.”
“Cool. I think I’m gonna go with…” I ran my hands over the balls, wiggling my fingers like I was letting them call to me somehow. “…yellow.”
“That’s a good color,” she said softly. “Not my favorite, but it’s good.”
“What’s your favorite?”
“Blue.”
“Good choice.” I picked up one of the blue golf balls and offered it to her, and she scooped it out of my hand eagerly. “Should we grab one for Cole too?”
She nodded emphatically and pointed to the basket full of pink balls, a mischievous glint in her eye.
“Excellent choice.”
I grabbed one out and handed it to her, and she took it and ran over to Cole. He turned around when she tugged on his shirt, and when she handed him the ball, his gaze cut immediately to me. I just shrugged and inclined my head toward his sister, suppressing my grin.
Penny seemed younger than nine in some ways, and I wondered if it was because of her Tourette’s—the way Cole had made it sound, she hadn’t gotten much support at all from their parents. I noticed a few small tics that she had, but only because I knew to look for them.
As we started to play, I realized quickly that this was far from the first time the two of them had come here. They both knew every hole backward and forward, and Cole whispered a few pointers in my ear as I lined up my shots.
Every time he touched me, or even got close to me, I could feel Penny’s gaze on us, and I wondered if she knew even a fraction of what had transpired between me and her brother.
Please God, I hope not. Let her just think I’m his friend from school and leave it at that.
Whatever she knew, or whatever she saw in our interactions, seemed to convince her that she could trust me though, because by the sixth hole, she was loudly directing my shots, seeming more intent on helping me win than on winning herself. The chatter from the car resumed, and as we made our way through the next several holes, I learned all about her latest project at school, the class guinea pig that was about to have babies, and a girl at school who had called her a mean name.
Cole tensed at that, his chest puffing up and straining the dark t-shirt he wore as his gaze darkened. The tattoos on his arms shifted as his muscles flexed.
He and the other Princes had ruthlessly bullied me for a semester and a half, but he obviously wasn’t okay with anyone going after his own sister.
It was hypocritical as fuck, but I found it hard to hold onto my anger when he pulled Penny into his side and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She hugged him back, then squirmed against his hold to go after her ball.
As she lined up her shot, he shook his head, his gaze still trained on her.
“I fucking dread her going to high school.”
My gaze flicked to his, and I wondered if he’d been thinking anything along the same lines I had.
“Yeah. It can be brutal.”
“If anyone ever did to her even close to what we did to you…” His eyes hardened like twin pools of ice. “I’d kill them.”
There was a dark promise in his voice, and a hint of self-recrimination too.
I glanced over at the girl with the light brown hair. Her head jerked toward her shoulder twice, but she hardly seemed to notice
it as she ran to take her next putt. Cole’s fear for her made perfect sense to me. Kids—people in general—could be horribly cruel, and the easiest thing for them to target was always what was “different”. Whatever that difference may be.
“At least she has you on her side,” I said, returning my gaze to Cole.
He nodded, but I could see the muscles in his jaw jump as he clenched his teeth together. Then his brows drew together, and he stepped forward, his large frame filling the bubble of my space as he brushed his knuckles down my cheek.
“So do you, Tal. Always.”
The promise lingered in his voice, and my breath caught as I tilted my face up toward his, like a flower trying to catch the sun’s rays.
“Your turn, Talia! I got a hole in four!”
Penny came bounding back to us, breathless with excitement, and I jumped back from Cole as if she’d caught us kissing. We hadn’t been. There’d been close to a foot of space between our bodies. But somehow what we’d been doing felt even more intimate.
“Thanks, Penny. What should I do for this one, do you think?”
I listened to her instructions as she guided me through the finer points of the course and its obstacles, and with her help, I managed to avoid the water trap and tie her score.
We played through the last several holes, and although my leg started to burn from being on my feet for so long, I tried not to let my limp become more noticeable. Cole’s observant eyes tracked my every movement though, and I knew he could tell I was flagging.
Without saying anything, he offered his arm up for me to hold onto, and I took it gratefully, trying not to notice how good the warm bands of his forearms felt under my fingertips or the way his ginger and pine scent clung to his skin.
Even as my energy waned, Penny seemed to get more and more excited, and by the time we returned our clubs and headed back toward the car, she was practically bouncing on her feet. The small tics I’d noticed earlier had become more pronounced too, and when we climbed back into the car, Cole glanced over at her, concern darkening his bright blue eyes.
“Pen, you okay?”
She nodded, although she looked a little uncomfortable. The jerking motion of her head was getting worse.
“Shit. Let’s get you home, alright?” He put the car in reverse and glanced over his shoulder as he backed out of the parking spot, catching my gaze as he did. “I’ve gotta drop her back home. I’ll take you back to Oak Park after, is that okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” I agreed quickly, although nerves knotted my stomach.
I was almost positive Cole hadn’t told his parents I was coming with him and Penny, and the original plan had been for him to drop me back at school before he and his sister went home.
If Penny needed to get back home, there was no way I was going to stop that from happening, but the thought of showing up at the Mercer household scared the shit out of me.
The fear wasn’t for myself though.
It was for Cole.
Chapter 18
Penny didn’t talk nonstop on the way back to their house like she had on the drive to the mini-golf place. Her tic seemed to distract and distress her too much for her to keep up her happy chatter.
Cole caught my gaze in the rearview mirror once and shook his head slightly. I wasn’t quite sure what the gesture meant, but I took it as his way of telling me this wasn’t out of the ordinary—that although it seemed unpleasant, it wasn’t something so unusual it was worrying.
Then again, I could’ve been totally wrong about that. It was a lot to read into a single head shake.
His expression as he drove was grim but not panicked though, and I knew if Penny was in real trouble, he definitely wouldn’t be acting so calm. It helped assuage my own fear for her… which only allowed my fear for him to rise closer to the surface.
I honestly considered asking him to leave me on a corner a few blocks away from his house and come get me after he’d dropped Penny off, but I was afraid the weirdness of that would only stress her out more. And besides, considering the Princes’ insistence on having someone with me at all times, I knew he wouldn’t go for leaving me out on the street like that.
Still, as we drove through the winding roads of an incredibly wealthy-looking neighborhood, my heart started to thud harder and faster in my chest.
After Cole pulled up the drive to a massive white-walled mansion, he put the car in park and turned back to face me. “Let me do the talking, okay?”
I nodded. My body felt like we were going into a war zone, even though I knew it couldn’t be that bad inside.
He pressed his lips together, worry creeping in at the edges of his eyes. Then he shook his head and moved quickly to get out, crossing in front of the car to open Penny’s door and help her out too. I followed, staying a few feet behind them as he led her up the walk to the large front door. When we stepped inside, he started leading her toward the stairs that curved along the large entry foyer, but before we could reach them, footsteps sounded on the marble floor.
“Good, you’re—”
Mr. Mercer stopped short as he stepped through an arched doorway on the other side of the large space. His face, so similar to Cole’s, took on a hard expression as his gaze flicked between the three of us. It landed on me last, and he narrowed his eyes, leaning forward almost unconsciously as if he was trying to figure out where he knew me from.
Of course. He must recognize me. I knew I bore more than a passing resemblance to my mom. It was probably like looking at an echo of the past.
He didn’t introduce himself or say anything at all to me though. Instead, he switched his focus back to Cole. “Son, did you go on a date when you told me you were taking your sister out?”
“No.” Cole’s voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, any hint of how he was feeling. “We went and played mini-golf, just like I said we were going to. Talia—”
“And what’s wrong with this one?” His dad cut him off with a nod in Penny’s direction, and I bristled for her at the callousness in his voice, at the way he called her “this one” instead of her given name.
Penny seemed to shrink into herself, like her body was physically growing smaller even as her head jerked harder. Cole’s gaze flashed to her, concern and guilt clear in his expression. “Nothing. She just needs—”
“Why is it always like this, Cole?” Mr. Mercer shook his head. “Why do you always rile her up? Goddammit. Come with me.”
Both Penny and Cole started forward, but their father put a hand up, stopping the little girl. “Not you.”
The look Cole shot Penny was relieved this time, and when Mr. Mercer turned and strode deeper into the house through the door he’d just entered from, the black-haired boy followed without looking back at me.
My heart was hammering so hard I could feel it rattling my rib cage, and my hands shook as useless adrenaline flooded my body. I stood helplessly in the large foyer, just inside the door, as Penny looked back at me sadly, her head still jerking. We both knew why her dad had called Cole away, and I had no idea what to say, what to do, to make any of this better.
Movement to my right made me jump, and when I spun in that direction, I caught sight of a small woman with soft brown hair stepping into the room. She blinked at me, seeming shocked and almost frightened to find a strange girl in her house, but before I could say anything, Penny made a soft noise, and Mrs. Mercer’s gaze shot to her.
Concern darkened her eyes, and she stepped forward quickly, wrapping an arm around Penny’s shoulder. She helped her up the stairs, murmuring softly into her ear. When they reached the landing at the top, she turned around to gaze back down at me for a moment. Her mouth opened and shut as if she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure what. Then she just shook her head and ushered her daughter down the hall and out of sight.
I blinked up at the space where they’d been, wondering how the woman lived like this—how she let it happen.
The way she acted toward Penny was so different th
an her husband, with gentleness and caring evident in her look and touch. So why did she let Mr. Mercer treat both of his kids so badly?
Then again, the broad-shouldered man was easily twice her size, and Cole’s mom looked like she’d probably blow over in a strong breeze. She was wispy and frail looking, timid and nervous. What could she do against the force of nature that was his dad?
My fingers wrapped around the handle of the front door as I shifted my gaze back to where Cole had followed his father. I wanted to storm after them, to do something, but I knew that would only make things worse.
A base, animal instinct honed by years of living with the man I’d called Dad told me to bolt, to run while I still could. But I couldn’t—wouldn’t—leave Cole behind.
So I just stayed there, frozen in place, until the blue-eyed boy returned several minutes later. His shirt was a little stretched and wrinkled in front, as if someone had grabbed a fistful of it, and his face was blank in a way that broke my heart. His father was nowhere to be seen, and he walked quickly toward me.
I was already opening the door before he reached me, and we both hurried outside, striding to his car as fast as we could with my bad leg holding us up. Zaps of pain radiated from my ankle, and I could feel my tendons protesting as I took longer strides than I was accustomed to, but I didn’t slow down until we made it to his car.
He shut my door behind me and slid into the driver’s seat, peeling out of the driveway so fast the tires screeched.
Hundreds of unspoken words filled the small interior of the Aston Martin, and the longer the silence dragged out, the more clogged the air seemed to become with them, until I was sure there was no oxygen left.
Cole’s face was a mask, but I could see his jaw clenching and his nostrils flaring with every sharp breath.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. This was all such a bad idea.
He must’ve decided to take the scenic route to school, maybe trying to give himself a little more time before he had to go back home, because we veered off the main road onto a quiet coastal highway. Normally, the sight of the waves crashing on the rocky beach in the distance would’ve soothed me, but there was nothing that could banish the sick feeling in my gut right now.